AMSOIL Motor Oil Benefits and Features

For the consumer, it can be very frustrating and confusing trying to
decipher the language and terminology the oil companies use on their product
labeling. There are 100% synthetics, full synthetics, synthetic blends, high
mileage, high performance.....and the list goes on and on.

I would like to shed a little light on the subject and explain the different
types of conventional petroleum (mineral) base stocks and synthetic base
stocks. There are three categories for mineral base oils. Group I possesses
the poorest set of properties and Group III offers the most desirable traits
of the three. Two additional categories exist which deal with non-mineral base
stocks. These are Groups IV and V.

Group I base oils are petroleum derived and the least refined of all of the
groups. They are usually a mix of different hydrocarbon chains with little
uniformity. While some automotive oils use these stocks, they are generally
used in less demanding applications.
Group II base oils, again petroleum derived, are common in mineral based
motor oils. They have fair to good performance in the areas of volatility,
oxidation stability, wear prevention and flash/fire points. They have only fair
performance in areas such as pour point and cold crank viscosity. The
majority of non-synthetic motor oils use this type of base stock.
Group III base oils are subjected to the highest level of refining of all the
mineral oil-derived stocks. Although not chemically engineered, they offer
improved performance in a wide range of areas as well as better molecular
uniformity and stability. In the US, they are considered by law a synthesized
material. Products labeled as "Full Synthetic" will typically have Group III
petroleum oil in the base stock! How can it be truly synthetic if it is merely
highly-purified crude petroleum oil? Call your old oil company and ask them
and they will most likely tell you it is proprietary information and leave it at
that.
Group IV are polyalphaolefins (PAO) which are chemically engineered
synthesized base stocks. PAOs offer excellent stability and molecular
uniformity and hence improve performance. Products labeled as "100%
Synthetic" use only Group IV base stocks and therefore are free of
petroleum oil and the impurities they contain. AMSOIL uses only Group IV
base stocks and is thus a 100% Synthetic motor oil.
Group V base oils, with few exceptions, are also chemically engineered stocks
that do not fall into any of the categories previously mentioned. Typical
examples of group V stocks are Esters, polyglycols and silicone. As with group
IV stocks, group V tend to offer performance advantages over groups I - III.
An example of a mineral based group V exception would be a white oil.

Now that you know a little about the types of base
stocks used in motor oil, it's time to take a look at
some of the benefits and features of AMSOIL's
synthetic base stocks: